Enterprise support

Digital catapult: 5G hub in Brighton

2015 - 2019

This project aims to promote growth in the digital economy through a combination of 5G infrastructure deployment (supported by C2C LEP capital funding) and creation of an ecosystem of early adopters of 5G applications and services by local business and the research community in Brighton region (delivered through contribution-in-kind by Digital Catapult Centre Brighton partners).

The project will develop and demonstrate innovative use cases and their business applications using a deployable next generation (5G) testbed as this technology develops advanced features and capabilities in the period 2015-19. This project also aims to develop a cluster of expertise around this testbed in Brighton and, through links from our Centre, contribute to keeping the UK at the forefront of the 5G deployment globally.

The project will deploy a functional advanced cellular network infrastructure at, and around, the Digital Catapult Centre in Brighton. The testbed will support specific features (e.g. advanced user profile and device management) from the broad set defined by the global 5G development roadmap and which are currently being developed here. Its unique selling point is to provide a test ground towards deployability and usability of advanced 5G solutions as they come out of the 5G development cycle, and integrating these activities with real world end-users in Brighton.

This model brings solutions from an advanced research and development activity and our testbed into an early real-world deployment, and represents an innovative ‘step-out’ approach compared to other 5G development activities in the world. As such it will provide an excellent opportunity in Brighton to engage with national and EU innovation actions and collaborative research and development programs, support the local business ecosystem, and contribute more widely to the UK leading position in the uptake of 5G and the new business models enabled by it – ultimately leading to job-creation in and around the Brighton LEP region.

Partners

The initial project partners are ourselves, Digital Catapult Centre Brighton members (Wired Sussex and University of Brighton) and Digital Catapult in London. The partners have complementary expertise in open innovation, user engagement, business innovation through application development ecosystems, and advanced communication network technologies and design. The activity will be supported by our largest investment in 5G research and development testbeds in the UK.

Creation of 5G "step-out" test facilities for SMEs and start-ups

In addition to the development of the world-leading, large-scale 5G testbed, we are working with regional partners to establish a smaller number of small indoor test facilities to service local clusters of digital businesses. The first such "step-out" facility was created in the Basingstoke Incubation Hub, managed by SETsquared.

The Basingstoke 5G facility provides local start-ups and SMEs direct access to an indoor test facility (connected to the Guildford testbed) which allows them to develop and demonstrate new mobile internet products and services for FinTech and other sectors.

The second step-out facility will create a large-scale 5G step-out facility linked to the main 5G testbed to serve the world-class digital gaming business cluster of Guildford and Aldershot. This will provide a flagship demonstrator project to leverage £5m investment from industry partners. It will:

Significantly improve and expand support to the creative digital SME and start-up community in a sector with strong economic growth potential

Link with a 3,000 sq ft business incubation and technical support step out facility based on the Surrey Research Park and SETsquared

Link to existing state of the art digital gaming, motion capture and virtual reality test and demonstration equipment at the University of Surrey in the Centre for Vision Systems and Signal Processing (CVSSP)

Link to other important economic sectors such as Health, FinTech and Transport through "gamification", the use of novel games technologies in other markets.

The programme is run from hubs in Basingstoke, Farnborough, Guildford and Woking and is attracting talented tech entrepreneurs to and from the Enterprise M3 area with a portfolio of business acceleration support. This includes entrepreneurship training and access to experienced mentors, venture investors and specialist services connected to our Centre.

The first two entrepreneur programmes have been heavily oversubscribed, showing a key demand for digital start-up support across the region and a market recognition of the quality of the training provided by the SETsquared and Surrey University team.

5GIC programme

Enterprise M3 Growth Fund provided £1.75m to fund equipment and staff costs for the original 5GIC testbed facility and to pave the way for engaging local business with the wider project.

It began in July 2015 following completion of our main Centre and ran until December 2016 when the installation of an emulator system at Basingstoke Incubation Centre was completed.

Specifically, the 5GIC programme has:

Created a vehicle for SMEs to understand, explore and develop products and services that will use 5G technology

Created a vehicle for small businesses to engage with major mobile telecommunications companies and explore the joint opportunities presented by 5G technology.

An independent report commissioned by our University makes it clear that the project has been very successful in achieving its core targets and performance indicators. These in turn have put in place the necessary infrastructure and foundation stones that will allow further research and development in 5G technologies and its applications.

The wider 5GIC core performance indicators are also relevant in reflecting the growth and progress of the larger project on which the testbed is built. Through EM3’s involvement and its role in bringing the SME community on board, the benefits of these achievements are also being shared with smaller businesses. In turn this will build their capacity to develop new products and services that will work in 5G networks as the technology emerges.

In the next phase of regional development, during 2017, we will work with a further £1.75m of EM3 growth funding to develop the world’s first 5G digital gaming support facility, bringing latest mobile internet technologies to the world class Guildford and Aldershot gaming cluster. 5GIC industry members have already committed an additional £5m to this programme.

We will also work to extend our existing network of SMEs to approximately 100, with an increasing focus on supporting company scale up opportunities within the regional digital economy. We also have the co-working facility Rocketdesk.

Research

Our research addresses the key challenges in the development of a 5G infrastructure capable of providing connectivity for future technologies.

Collaboration

We have numerous partnerships with businesses around the globe and are always looking to work with national partners. We also have strong relationships with a number of key global, national and regional players in communications.